北京：一座全部實(shí)現(xiàn)清潔能源發(fā)電的城市？

When Beijing shut its last coal-fired power station this month, state media trumpeted the smog-plagued city as China’s first to have all its power plants fuelled by clean energy. But the claim, energy experts suggest, is largely “greenwashing” because most of Beijing’s electricity is imported from equally dirty plants outside the capital.

當(dāng)本月北京關(guān)停最后一座燃煤電廠時(shí)，官方媒體宣稱，飽受霧霾困擾的北京由此成為中國(guó)首個(gè)全部實(shí)現(xiàn)清潔能源發(fā)電的城市。但能源專家表示，這種斷言大體上是在“漂綠”(greenwash)，因?yàn)楸本┐蟛糠蛛娏Χ驾斪跃┩馕廴就瑯訃?yán)重的電廠。

The closure of the Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant, which overlooks a swath of rusting warehouses, vehicle repair shops and a tangle of brick houses rented by migrant workers, was the final step in a multiyear plan for Beijing to shut its four remaining coal-fired plants and replace them with ones using natural gas, which produce about half the emissions.

華能北京熱電廠(Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant)周圍是一片外觀銹跡斑斑的倉(cāng)庫(kù)、各種修車店以及農(nóng)民工租住的雜亂的磚房。按照前幾年公布的一項(xiàng)計(jì)劃，北京要陸續(xù)關(guān)停本市最后4座燃煤電廠，代之以排放約少一半的燃?xì)鉄犭姀S，而關(guān)停華能燃煤熱電廠就是這項(xiàng)計(jì)劃的最后一步。

“As an ordinary labourer, I do not pay much attention to things like air and the environment,” says Feng Huawei, a construction worker who has lived near the base of the plant for four years. “But I think overall closing the plant is quite a good thing. It means less obvious pollution.”

“咱就是一個(gè)普通的干活的，不太關(guān)心空氣、環(huán)境啥的，”在該電廠附近住了4年的建筑工人馮華偉(音)說，“但我覺得全關(guān)了是好事，污染就不會(huì)那么重了。”

Huaneng burnt 1.76m tonnes of coal a year, according to state media agency Xinhua, and taking it off the grid would help lower the city’s noxious sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

中國(guó)官方通訊社新華社報(bào)道稱，華能一年需要燃煤176萬(wàn)噸，將其關(guān)停將有助于降低北京市的有害二氧化硫、氮氧化物排放。

But 70 per cent of Beijing’s electricity is generated outside of the city, with the bulk coming from Shanxi province and Inner Mongolia via transmission lines running through neighbouring Hebei province. All three provinces have enormous coal-fired power generation capacity, and more than 60 per cent of Beijing’s electricity consumption still comes from coal, according to China’s National Energy Administration.

但北京市70%的電力來自外埠，其中大部分來自山西和內(nèi)蒙古，通過經(jīng)由河北的輸電線輸入北京。這3個(gè)省(自治區(qū))都擁有龐大的煤電裝機(jī)容量，而根據(jù)中國(guó)國(guó)家能源局的數(shù)據(jù)，北京用電量的逾60%仍來自燃煤發(fā)電。

That means closing Huaneng is only a partial solution, says Yang Fuqiang, a senior adviser on climate and energy at campaign group the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing. “Beijing still consumes about 10m tonnes of coal [a year]. We would like to see coal consumption cut more quickly and deeply.”

自然資源保護(hù)協(xié)會(huì)(NRDC)北京代表處的氣候與能源問題高級(jí)顧問楊富強(qiáng)表示，這意味著關(guān)停華能只能解決部分問題。“北京(一年)仍要消耗約1000萬(wàn)噸煤。我們希望看到煤炭消耗量更快、更大幅的下降。”

Liansai Dong, a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace acknowledges that the fall in local emissions of harmful pollutants, including dust, sulphur dioxide and heavy metals could benefit Beijing’s residents. “However, it is quite a simplification of the problem to say Beijing is entirely relying on natural gas-fired power plants.”

綠色和平(Greenpeace)的氣候與能源活動(dòng)人士董連賽承認(rèn)，本地有害污染物排放減少，包括粉塵、二氧化硫、重金屬，對(duì)北京居民有好處。“但是，說北京全部依賴燃?xì)鉄犭姀S，未免把問題太簡(jiǎn)單化了。”

Beijing faces a critical gap between energy supply and demand; the city’s 27 power plants have a total installed capacity of just over 11,000 megawatts, roughly half of what is required to meet its energy demands.

北京市的能源供給與需求之間存在著巨大缺口;全市27座電廠的總裝機(jī)容量剛超過1.1萬(wàn)兆瓦，僅能滿足本市約一半的能源需求。

As a result, Beijing imported 57bn kWh of energy from China’s coal-heavy north-east provinces in 2014, the last year for which numbers are available.

因此，根據(jù)可獲得的最新數(shù)據(jù)，2014年，北京市從中國(guó)北方產(chǎn)煤大省輸入的電量為570億千瓦時(shí)。

That has experts worried that Beijing’s coal shutdowns are not reducing overall emissions.

令專家們擔(dān)心的是，北京市關(guān)停燃煤電廠并不意味著排放總量下降。

“What we are most concerned with is this does not cut carbon dioxide emissions, because increased coal electricity production in other provinces also increases carbon dioxide emissions as a result,” says Mr Yang.

“我們最關(guān)注的是，這樣做不能減少二氧化碳排放，因?yàn)槠渌∪济喊l(fā)電增加也會(huì)導(dǎo)致二氧化碳排放增加，”楊富強(qiáng)說。

Still, most environmentalists and energy policy experts praise the plant closure as a move in the right direction.

盡管如此，大多數(shù)環(huán)保主義者、能源政策專家都稱贊北京市關(guān)停燃煤電廠是朝著正確方向邁出的一步。

“The closure of the city’s last coal-fired plant is significant because it is likely a harbinger of things to come for a far larger region that currently faces air quality issues, of which Beijing is only a part,” says Anders Hove, an associate research director at the at the University of Chicago’s Paulson Institute.

芝加哥大學(xué)(University of Chicago)保爾森研究所(Paulson Institute)副研究主管安德斯•霍夫(Anders Hove)表示：“北京市關(guān)停最后一座燃煤電廠意義重大，因?yàn)閷?duì)目前面臨空氣質(zhì)量問題的更廣大地區(qū)——北京只是其中一部分——而言，這很可能是一個(gè)預(yù)示未來形勢(shì)變化的先兆。”

Beijing has made significant efforts to increase the presence of renewable energy sources — wind, solar and hydropower — in its electricity generation mix. It has set a national target for the share of non-fossil fuel electricity to reach 30 per cent by 2020. Last April, energy regulators announced that China had suspended plans for about 200 coal-fired power generators, contributing to a global slump in coal demand.

中國(guó)已經(jīng)采取了重大舉措，力求提升風(fēng)能、太陽(yáng)能和水力等可再生能源在電力結(jié)構(gòu)中所占的比重，其目標(biāo)是到2020年非化石能源發(fā)電量的占比達(dá)到30%。去年4月，能源監(jiān)管部門宣布，中國(guó)暫停了約200座燃煤電廠的建設(shè)計(jì)劃，導(dǎo)致全球煤炭需求暴跌。

Yet the country has struggled to adapt its energy grid to new, renewable energy sources. China wasted 49.7bn kWh of solar and wind power-generated electricity in 2016, according to the China’s State Grid Corp, due to a phenomenon called curtailment, in which energy is not hooked up to the power grid for lack of transmission lines and grid capacity.

然而，中國(guó)的電網(wǎng)一直難以消納新型可再生能源發(fā)電。根據(jù)中國(guó)國(guó)家電網(wǎng)(State Grid Corp)的數(shù)據(jù)，由于輸電線路缺乏、電網(wǎng)容量不足導(dǎo)致無法并入電網(wǎng)而造成棄風(fēng)和棄光，2016年，中國(guó)浪費(fèi)了497億千瓦時(shí)的太陽(yáng)能和風(fēng)能發(fā)電量。

Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, the two provinces on which Beijing relies heavily for electricity imports, waste the equivalent of as much as 30 per cent of the electricity they export to Beijing annually due to curtailment, according to Greenpeace.

北京嚴(yán)重依賴從山西和內(nèi)蒙古輸入電力，而根據(jù)綠色和平的數(shù)據(jù)，這兩個(gè)省(自治區(qū))因棄風(fēng)限電每年浪費(fèi)的電量相當(dāng)于它們輸至北京的電量的30%。

In February, China energy regulators halted all approvals of future wind energy projects in six provinces after discovering that a high number of wind farms were completely unconnected to the national grid and the energy they generated was sent nowhere.

今年2月，在發(fā)現(xiàn)大量風(fēng)電場(chǎng)完全沒有并入國(guó)家電網(wǎng)、所發(fā)電力無處可送之后，中國(guó)能源監(jiān)管部門暫停了對(duì)6個(gè)省所有新風(fēng)電項(xiàng)目的審批。

Near the Huaneng plant in Beijing, locals are philosophical about such policy dilemmas. “The plant does seem to have stopped emitting smoke,” says Jin Le, who works in storage facility nearby the power station. “I did not even notice until now, because the Beijing government stops the plant from operating during big [government] meetings. But they have not torn down the plant. They could resume operating it any time.”

華能北京熱電廠周邊的居民對(duì)這種政策困境泰然處之。“那個(gè)廠似乎確實(shí)不冒煙了，”在電廠附近一處倉(cāng)儲(chǔ)設(shè)施工作的金勒(音)說，“我到現(xiàn)在才注意到，因?yàn)楸本┦姓谥卮?政府)會(huì)議期間就讓電廠停工。但是他們沒把電廠拆掉。他們可以隨時(shí)讓它復(fù)工。”